1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a server having an automatic management mechanism. The automatic management mechanism, according to the present invention, automatically licenses a user to use software parts, such as software packages or software components, and has a function for automatically arranging images, a function to certify a user only when the certification is necessary, or a function to automatically extract explanations of software parts, when a user accesses the server through a web browser.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing an outline of a software parts searching system for explaining the background of the present invention. In the figure, a reference numeral 111 denotes a web browser, and a reference numeral 112 denotes a web server. The web server 112 includes a processing unit 113 for executing a program for searching software parts, a program for registering software parts, a program for managing users, and a program for managing security, all of which are written in Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML) and/or Structured Query Language (SQL), a relational data base 114 and a buffer 115 for storing software parts. As to the software parts, there are device drivers such as a printer driver, a routine such as a rotation or edge extraction for image processing, or a source program, specification, description or the like for techniques, know-how or the like, all of which are stored in a library. The software parts searching system shown in FIG. 11 is so constructed that the software parts, which are stored in the library in order to efficiently store and distribute these software parts, can be easily provided to the users.
In the software parts searching system shown in FIG. 11, a licensing procedure, an image arrangement procedure, a user certification procedure, and an explanation extracting procedure, in the prior art, are briefly described in the following.
FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing a procedure of a conventional licensing process. Conventionally, when a user tries to download a software part from a web server 112, and when a license is necessary to obtain the software part, the process is as follows.
FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing a procedure of a conventional licensing process. Conventionally, when a user tries to download a software part from a web server 112, and when a license is necessary to obtain the software part, the process is as follows.
(1) A user 121 requests a system managing person 122, who manages the web server 112 through the web browser 111, to allow use of a software part by designating the title of the software part the user is going to use.
(2) The system managing person 122 requests a person at the communication window 123, representing the original developer of the designated software part, to allow the utilization of the particular software part.
(3) The person at the communication window 123 judges whether or not the allowance of the utilization of the software part is possible, and the judgment result is returned to the system managing person 122.
(4) The judgment result of whether or not the allowance of the utilization is possible is passed from the system managing person 122 to the user 121.
(5) If the utilization is allowed, the system managing person 122 releases the security of the software part to the user 121 who has requested utilization.
FIG. 13 is a diagram for explaining the conventional procedure to arrange titles of software parts on a displayed image file. In the figure, as the titles of new software parts, the DOCUMENT OCR 131 and the LAN DRIVER 132 are illustrated as examples. Each of the software parts is accompanied by a function a, a function b, a keyword a, and a keyword b. The software-parts searching program 133 manages files which are displayed on a display screen by means of the web browser. The files are managed hierarchically by means of items or titles of software parts classified according to various functions. In the illustrated example, software parts with titles of “IMAGE SIGNAL CONVERSION” and “PATTERN RECOGNITION” are arranged in the item “IMAGE”; and software parts entitled “MODEM” and “TCP/IP” are arranged in the item “COMMUNICATION”. Conventionally, the arrangement of the software parts in the software-parts searching system was handled by a system managing person.
FIG. 14 is a diagram for explaining the general concept of a conventional user certification procedure. In the figure, conventionally, when a user 141 requests a server 142 to use either one of image files 1-4 which are software parts in the server 142, the server 142 carries out a user certification procedure by executing a certification program 143 for every request regardless of whether or not a certification is necessary for the request for utilization of an image file.
Further, although not shown in the figure, when a new software part is to be registered during an explanation extracting procedure, the explanation with respect to the software part such as a function, a supporting MPU, a platform, a development language for developing the software part, an operating environment, etc. must be registered simultaneously with the registration of the software part. Conventionally, the user, who is going to register a software part, extracts necessary expressions from a specification or a manual of the software part to be registered. Then the user brings the extracted expressions to the person at the communication window 123 (see FIG. 12), representing the origin of the development of the designated software part, to ask the person at the communication window 123 to prepare the explanation by converting the extracted expression into the text or HTML format. Thus, the explanation is prepared at the original developer.
According to the conventional licensing procedure, there are a number of steps to be carried out until the user can actually download the software part. As a result, there is a problem in that the load on the system managing person is large and that a response to the user is slow.
In addition, according to the conventional image arranging procedure, the system managing person has to consider where in the hierarchy the software part is to be arranged based on the information such as the title, the functions, the keyword, etc. of the software part. As a result, there is a problem in that the load on the system manager is large.
Further, according to the conventional user certification procedure, the certification procedure must be always effected even when the certification is not necessary. As a result, there is a problem in that the certification procedure takes a long time.